In these types of equipment, the objects appropriately coded according to their expected destination are automatically loaded on trolleys, which in passing the picking-up devices they are destined for, actuate the mat in a preprogrammed manner, to unload the object.
Equipment of this type is already known and has been described, for instance, in the patent application No. MI95A 001427, to which reference is made for further details. In many cases these small rotating mats are fitted with flaps which make it possible to prevent the carried objects from accidentally dropping off before the time of their delivery.
In combination with optoelectronic devices, these flaps may also function as sensors to verify for example the mat's proper operation, such as its rotation, etc. However, the presence of these flaps projecting from the surface of the mat requires the same to be properly positioned at the end of each unloading operation, to ensure that at the mat's standstill the flaps are always oriented toward the ends of the same, thus preventing it from interfering with the object being loaded.
The known technology envisions for this purpose the use of means capable of correcting the position of the flaps, if the same happen to get beyond the acceptable limit when the mat stops.
In particular, this includes the use of flaps in the form of projections extending from the mat's lower surface, so that if the latter stops when the flaps rest on the transmission rollers, the contact between the roller and the projection, which keeps the mat slightly lifted above the roller, induces an elastic stretching of the mat itself, and therefore a recalling force that tends to return, and therefore correct, the flap's position.